Trumps son-in-law will lead Office of American Innovation to privatize certain government functions, as he agrees to testify in Russia election investigation

Jared Kushner, Donald Trumps son-in-law and senior adviser, found himself back in the spotlight for better and for worse on Monday.

As the US president appointed him to a new White House role, it was revealed that Kushner would testify before a Senate committee investigating Russian interference in last years election.

With Kushner at its helm, Trumps White House Office of American Innovation is designed to overhaul the federal government with input from the private sector, it was announced on Monday. The venture, which will bring together a team of former executives to privatize certain government functions, will follow through on the presidents business-minded approach to running the country.

The initiative, first reported by the Washington Post, was rolled out on the same day it was revealed that Kushner would testify before the Senate intelligence committee as part of its investigation into Russian interference in the US presidential election.

Kushners offer to appear before the Senate panel stems from his meeting with Sergey Kislyak, the Russian ambassador to the US. The encounter at Trump Tower also included the former national security adviser Michael Flynn, who resigned from the Trump administration after misleading vice-president Mike Pence about the nature of his discussions with Kislyak.

Late on Monday a Russian bank under western economic sanctions over Russias incursion into Ukraine also disclosed that its executives had met Kushner during the election campaign.

The White House press secretary, Sean Spicer, said there was nothing nefarious about Kushners meeting with the Russian ambassador, while adding that Kushner had volunteered to answer questions from the Senate panel.

Given the role that he played both during the campaign and the transition, he met with countless individuals, Spicer told reporters Monday.That was part of his job, that was part of his role, and he executed it completely as he was supposed to.

A White House official said: Throughout the campaign and transition, Jared Kushner served as the official primary point of contact with foreign governments and officials.

Given this role, he has volunteered to speak with Chairman Burrs committee, but has not yet received confirmation, the official said, referring to the North Carolina senator Richard Burr, the chair of the Senate intelligence committee.

Burr and the leading Democrat on the committee said in a joint statement: Mr Kushner will certainly not be the last person the committee calls to give testimony, but we expect him to be able to provide answers to key questions that have arisen in our inquiry. They said the timing was still being determined.

Executives of Vnesheconombank (VEB) had talks with Kushner during a roadshow last year, Reuter reported late on Monday, citing an emailed statement from the bank. Meetings took place with a number of representatives of the largest banks and business establishments of the United States, including Jared Kushner, the head of Kushner Companies. VEB declined to say where the meetings took place or the dates.

There was no immediate comment from Kushner.

According to the Reuters report, US officials said that Kushner met in December with Sergei Gorkov, chairman of Vnesheconombank. White House spokeswoman Hope Hicks confirmed the meetings, saying nothing of consequence was discussed.

Gorkov was appointed head of VEB in early 2016 by Vladimir Putin. He graduated from the Federal Security Service, or FSB, Russias internal security agency. He was awarded the Medal of the Order of Merit for Services to the Fatherland, according to the banks website.

To date, Kushners interactions with foreign diplomats, including the Russian envoy, have drawn far less scrutiny than Flynns. But then so have many of the 36-year-old moguls dealings since he traded his office in Manhattan for a perch at the side of the most powerful man in the country.

Married to Trumps eldest daughter, Ivanka Trump, Kushner has been a decidedly quiet force in a White House marked by reality TV-style theatrics. While other top officials blitz the airwaves almost daily and anonymously text message reporters to feed into the administrations drama, Kushner remains relatively media-shy.

But he is regarded as one of the few who truly has the presidents ear, a kindred spirit of sorts to Trump despite the latters bombastic public demeanor. Kushner, like his father-in-law, was born to a property mogul and pursued the family business of real estate development in Manhattan.

Both their fathers faced controversy. While Fred Trump was sued for discriminating against African Americans and Puerto Ricans seeking to rent apartments in his properties, Charles Kushner was jailed for tax evasion, making illegal campaign contributions and witness tampering.

It thus came as little surprise when Jared Kushner worked to oust Chris Christie as the chief of Trumps transition team, even though the New Jersey governor had acted as one of the campaigns most loyal surrogates. Although associates of Kushner downplayed his role in the decision, the moment was widely seen as an act of retribution since Christie prosecuted the case against Kushners father that led to his imprisonment more than a decade ago while Christie was serving as a US attorney.

To many, the move was indicative of Kushners growing prominence in Trumps inner circle, as well as his shrewdness.

By the last few months of Trumps bid for the presidency, he had functioned as a de facto campaign manager and was even involved in approving individual radio advertising buys. It was an unlikely ascent to the national stage for a mild-mannered Harvard graduate who lacked political experience.

But Kushner played a key role in internal intrigue throughout the campaign, helping to trigger the departure of Trumps first campaign manager, Corey Lewandowski, in June. The two men had been feuding about the direction of the campaign and a source at the time told the Guardian that Lewandowski had been involved in planting negative stories about Kushner in the media.

Kushner subsequently proved influential in Trumps search for a running mate and reportedly nudged his father-in-law in Pences direction.

But it was foreign affairs, namely the Israel-Palestine conflict, that became a focal point for Kushner that ultimately helped Trump lock down a key constituency in Washington. Kushner, an Orthodox Jew, met at length with the Israeli ambassador to the US, Ron Dermer, during the campaign and helped craft Trumps address before the influential American Israel Public Affairs Committee at a time when his father-in-law faced skepticism from the pro-Israel lobby.

When Kushner was named a senior adviser in the Trump White House, Middle East diplomacy was placed at the top of his agenda.

If you cant produce Middle East peace, nobody can, Trump told his son-in-law on the eve of his 20 January inauguration.

That task now appears to have taken a backseat to fixing the federal government.

Hank Sheinkopf, a New York-based Democratic strategist, said Kushners evolving position was indicative of an inflection point in the early stages of Trumps presidency.

As the president gets into more trouble and has less to show for his time in office, the circle is tightening, said Sheinkopf.

The president will try to find people who can protect him, and Jared is one of them. As it gets tougher, his role will become more important, not less.

Even as their exact roles remain unclear, Kushner and his wife, Ivanka, are frequently seen at Trumps side for consequential meetings.

They joined him for his first post-election encounter with a foreign leader, the Japanese prime minister, Shinzo Abe, at Trump Tower in November. More recently, they dined alongside Trump and the pro-Brexit UK politician Nigel Farage at Trumps Washington hotel.

But their inability to impose discipline upon an unruly and chaotic start to the new administration calls into question whether Kushner and Ivanka Trump can truly influence the direction of Trumps agenda.

Even as strategic leaks tout the power couples efforts to serve as a moral conscience within White House from advocating in favor of LGBT rights to seeking to protect Barack Obamas climate change initiatives Trump has pressed forth with the nationalist and conservative priorities upon which he campaigned.

In a move that suggests such reports of their influence may be overstated, the president has already reversed Obamas guidance on the use of bathrooms by transgender students and chipped away at environmental regulations; this week, he is poised to kill the clean power plan that was a cornerstone of his predecessors anti-climate change policy.